Silk Mamtfacture: -^^ 



" The pinna and the crab together dwell, 

 For mutual succour in one common shell ; 

 They both to gain a livelihood combine. 

 That takes the prey, when this has given the sign ; 

 From hence this crab, above his fellows famed,^ 

 By ancient Greeks was Pinnotores named." 



' It is said that the pinna fastens itself so strongly to the locivs, 

 that the men who are employed in fishing it are obliged to use 

 considerable force to break the tuft of threads by which it is se- 

 ciu-ed fifteen, twenty, and sometimes thirty feet below the sur- 

 face of the sea. 



' The fishermen at Toulon use an instrument called a cramp for 

 this curious pursuit. This is a kind of iron fork, whose prongs 

 are each about eight feet in length and six inches apart, and placed 

 at right angles to the handle, the length of which is regulated by 

 the depth of water. The pinucB are seized, separated from the 

 rock, and raised to the surface by means of this instrument. 



' The threads of the pinna have from very ancient time been 

 employed in the manufacture of certain fabrics. This material 

 was well known to the ancients, as some suppose, under the name 

 of byssus, and was wrought in very " early times into gloves and 

 other articles of dress and ornament. It appears that robes were 

 sometimes made of this produce, since we learn from Procopius 

 that a robe composed of byssus of the pinna was presented to the 

 satraps of Armenia by the Roman emperor. 



' A writer of the )'ear 1782 evidently refers to the pinnae marinre, 

 when he says, " The ancients had a manufacture of silk,' and 

 which, about forty years ago, w^as revived at Tarento and Regio 

 = in the kingdom of Naples. It consists of a strong brown silk, be- 

 longing to some sort of shell, of which they make caps, gloves, 

 stockings, waistcoats, 4'c., warmer than the woollen stutts, and 

 brighter than common silk. I have seen such kind of silk in 

 shells myself ; I think it was of the pecten kind, but cannot be 

 sure.'' 



' Several beautiful manufactures are wrought Avith these threads 

 at Palermo. The}' are in many places the chief objects of the 

 fishery, and the silk is found to be excellent. The produce of a 

 considerable number of pinna^ is required to make only "one pair 

 of stockings. The delicacy of this singular thread is such that a 

 pair of stockings made of it can be easily contained in a snuff box 

 of ordinary size. Some stockings of this material were present- 

 ed, in the year 1754, to pope Benedict XIV. ; and, notwithstand- 

 ing their extreme fineness, were found to protect the legs alike 

 from cold and heat. Stockings and gloves of this production, 

 however thin, are too warm for common wear, but are esteemed 



